Off-premises requests for alcohol delivery and pickup

Your obligations when a customer makes an off-premises request for you to deliver alcohol or allow them to pick it up.

General requirements

You must have one of these licence types to do off-premises requests:

General or late night (general)
Restaurant and cafe
Full club
Packaged liquor or late night (packaged liquor)
Remote seller’s
Producer’s.

If you have one of these licence types, unless you have a remote seller’s licence you must notify us before you start.

You can only deliver until 11 pm, regardless of the trading hours on your licence.

For same-day orders, you must deliver to a person. You cannot leave the delivery unattended.

Read about other delivery requirements.

Licence-specific requirements

In addition to general requirements, some licence types have extra rules for off-premises requests.

If you have a:

full club licence you can only supply off-premises to a club member
producer’s licence you can only supply your own product off-premises
renewable limited licence you must have a specific licence condition that permits off-premises requests. If you don’t have one, read about making changes to your licence conditions.
restaurant and cafe licence you can only supply alcohol with a takeaway or delivered meal prepared at your licensed venue. You must not supply more than 750ml of wine or 6 x 375ml containers of beer, cider or pre-mixed spirits. Make sure your ordering system limits the amount of alcohol per order to meet these requirements.

If your licence conditions say something different to this, your licence conditions apply.

If you want to change your business model, check if you need to change your licence type or licence conditions. We need to approve any changes before you start supplying alcohol in a different way.

Notify us before you start

If you have one of the eligible licence types, you must notify us before you take alcohol orders by phone, post or online. You do not need to do this if you have a remote seller’s licence.

Notify us with the Liquor Portal

Follow these steps to notify us:

Log into your Liquor Portal account or create an account if you don’t have one. You can use this guide:

Liquor Portal Registration guide PDF 651.18 KB (opens in a new window)

You need to associate your licence. If you’ve already done this, go to step 3. You link your licence by clicking the Add/Associate a Licence button (near the bottom of the screen). Complete the form to associate your licence.
Check we have the right email. To change an email associated with a licence, click the ‘Actions’ button and select ‘Update email’.
Register your intent to fulfil off-premises requests. Next to your licence details, click the ‘Actions’ button and select ‘Notification obligations’. Tick the boxes to notify us of your intent.
To submit, click the ‘Send Notification’ button at the bottom right of the screen. We will send you an email confirmation once we receive your notification. You’ll breach your licence obligations if you do not notify us.

Display correctly

To meet your legal requirements you must:

show your liquor licence number clearly on your website or ordering platform
display this warning notice where customers place their order:

Warning Under the Liquor Control Reform Act 1998 it is an offence to supply alcohol to a person under 18 years (penalty exceeds $24,000) and for a person under 18 years to purchase or receive alcohol (penalty exceeds $1,000).

include your licence number in any ads or promotions for alcohol delivery or pickup.

Taking orders

To meet your legal requirements you must:

if a customer is ordering for the first time, they must confirm they are 18 or older
for gift orders, confirm both the sender and recipient are 18 or older, and record the recipient’s name and address.
for delivery orders, ask existing customers where to leave the order if they won’t be home.

Delivering orders

You are only allowed to deliver until 11 pm, regardless of the trading hours on your licence.

You must not deliver to minors or intoxicated customers.

Read about your legal requirements for deliveries:

Open all

Instructions for delivery drivers

You must provide written instructions to each delivery driver, including if you outsource your deliveries.

Same-day orders must be delivered to a person. You cannot leave the delivery unattended.

All deliveries must be completed before 11 pm.

First-time customers (not including gift orders)

The customer must confirm they are 18 or older.
Delivery must be to the person who placed the order. Check their ID (acceptable proof of age) to confirm they are 18 or older. Repeat orders (same customer):
Follow the customer’s instructions for where to leave the delivery. This can include leaving it unattended if no one is home. Gift orders:
When taking the order, you must get the recipient’s name and address.
The ordering customer must confirm both they and the recipient are 18 or older.
The delivery driver must only hand over the alcohol if the recipient (or someone aged 18 or older at the address) produces ID that verifies their age.

Refusing delivery

It’s against the law to deliver alcohol if the recipient is any of these:

aged under 18
intoxicated
there’s a substantial risk the recipient is intoxicated. Make sure delivery drivers know to refuse any delivery that would break the law.

Give drivers simple written guidance on how to spot intoxication and what to do. It may be useful to include signs of intoxication in your written instructions.

How to refuse a delivery

Politely explain you cannot leave the alcohol because you must follow the law.
Record the refusal and the reason (under-age / intoxicated / substantial risk).
Notify your fulfilment team so they can follow up.

Short scripts for drivers:

‘Sorry, I can’t leave alcohol unless I check valid ID to see that you are aged 18 or older. I’ll need to return this to the shop and record the refusal.’

‘Sorry, it is against the law to deliver alcohol to a person who shows signs of intoxication or is at risk of intoxication. I will mark this as undelivered and you can arrange for a pick up or redelivery at another time.’

Record and report failed deliveries

You must keep a record of every failed alcohol delivery and report the data to us by 30 July each year.

A failed delivery means the driver refused to hand over the alcohol for any of these reasons:

recipient was under 18
delivery address was unattended (same-day delivery)
person who ordered was not present or could not show acceptable ID (first-time order)
recipient (or someone at the address for a gift) could not show acceptable ID
recipient was intoxicated or there was a substantial risk they were intoxicated.

Minimum data you must keep

For each reporting period, record and keep:

total number of deliveries made
total number of failed deliveries. For each failed delivery you must record the:
date and time of the refusal
postcode where the refusal happened
reason for refusal (under-18 / unattended same-day / no ID (first-time) / no ID (gift) / intoxicated / substantial risk)

Where to send data

Send the data and the failed-delivery records to contact@liquor.vic.gov.au by 30 July each year.

Use this template to record failed deliveries:

Failed packaged liquor delivery reporting template Excel 79.48 KB (opens in a new window)

Resources to help with deliveries

To help with delivery, you may want to use these resources:

Alcohol delivery checklist Word 115.93 KB (opens in a new window)

Label for same day deliveries Word 21.83 KB (opens in a new window)

Alcohol delivery order logsheet Word 33.76 KB (opens in a new window)

Offences and penalties

You can be fined if you, or the drivers who deliver your alcohol, do not follow your licence conditions or deliver alcohol responsibly.

Penalties apply for:

not trading in accordance with your licence obligations, which can lead to a fine of more than $12,000. Breaching a licence condition can also lead to disciplinary action.
supplying alcohol to an under-18, which can lead to a fine of more than $24,000
delivering alcohol to someone who is intoxicated or likely to be, which can lead to a fine of more than $24,000.

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Off-premises requests for alcohol delivery and pickup

On this page

General requirements

Licence-specific requirements

Notify us before you start

Display correctly

Taking orders

Delivering orders

How to refuse a delivery

Short scripts for drivers:

Minimum data you must keep

Where to send data

Offences and penalties

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Off-premises requests for alcohol delivery and pickup

On this page

General requirements

Licence-specific requirements

Notify us before you start

Display correctly

Taking orders

Delivering orders

How to refuse a delivery

Short scripts for drivers:

Minimum data you must keep

Where to send data

Offences and penalties

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